Properties Of Cues Research Articles

Attentional bias to alcohol-related cues: effects of menstrual cycle phase and sex differences.

A recent study by our group found that women displayed greater attentional bias to alcohol-related cues during the late versus early follicular phase in both sober and intoxicated states, suggesting a greater risk of excessive drinking among women during this phase. Changes in attentional bias as a function of menstrual cycle phase raise questions about potential sex differences in the relative consistency by which women and men display attentional bias to alcohol over time. The present study tested sex differences in attentional bias to alcohol by comparing the change in women's attentional bias from early to late follicular phase to that observed in men over the same period. Twenty-five men and 25 women aged 21-32 participated in a placebo-controlled study examining sex differences in the rewarding properties of alcohol. Participants completed measures of attentional bias to alcohol-related cues during two sessions following both 0.6g/kg alcohol and placebo. Test sessions occurred one week apart, and for female participants coincided with the early and late follicular phases. Men consistently displayed attentional bias to alcohol-related cues across sessions under both doses. By contrast, women showed attentional bias only during the late follicular phase, at a magnitude greater than that observed in men, and persistent under both doses. These findings highlight the potential role of sex and menstrual cycle phase in sensitizing drinkers to rewarding properties of alcohol-related cues. Men's motivation to drink may remain relatively consistent, whereas women may be most motivated during the late follicular phase.

The role of differential cross-linguistic influence and other constraints in predictive L2 gender processing

Previous studies on the use of morphosyntactic gender cues for linguistic prediction show that non-native speakers’ use of grammatical gender information is influenced by various factors. In the present study, we examined the influence of differential cross-linguistic influence (DCLI), knowledge of L2 lexical gender, gender congruency, and L2 fluency. To this end, we investigated L1 Oromo L2 Amharic speakers as well as L1 Amharic speakers, using the Visual World Paradigm (VWP) and supplementary offline experiments. We investigated two groups of L2 Amharic speakers, i.e., L1 Eastern Oromo L2 Amharic and L1 Western Oromo L2 Amharic speakers. The Eastern Oromo dialect patterns with Amharic in terms of gender agreement unlike the Western Oromo dialect which does not have grammatical gender. Analyses of the participants’ proportion of eye fixations show that early exposure to the gendered Eastern Oromo dialect facilitates predictive L2 gender processing. L2 fluency, the speakers’ knowledge of L2 lexical gender, and specific properties of the gender cues modulate predictive L2 gender processing. However, there is no significant influence of lexical gender congruency. The study has ecological significance as it presents empirical data from understudied languages.

Delineating memory reactivation in sleep with verbal and non-verbal retrieval cues.

Sleep supports memory consolidation via the reactivation of newly formed memory traces. One way to investigate memory reactivation in sleep is by exposing the sleeping brain to auditory retrieval cues; a paradigm known as targeted memory reactivation. To what extent the acoustic properties of memory cues influence the effectiveness of targeted memory reactivation, however, has received limited attention. We addressed this question by exploring how verbal and non-verbal memory cues affect oscillatory activity linked to memory reactivation in sleep. Fifty-one healthy male adults learned to associate visual stimuli with spoken words (verbal cues) and environmental sounds (non-verbal cues). Subsets of the verbal and non-verbal memory cues were then replayed during sleep. The voice of the verbal cues was either matched or mismatched to learning. Memory cues (relative to unheard control cues) prompted an increase in theta/alpha and spindle power, which have been heavily implicated in sleep-associated memory processing. Moreover, verbal memory cues were associated with a stronger increase in spindle power than non-verbal memory cues. There were no significant differences between the matched and mismatched verbal cues. Our findings suggest that verbal memory cues may be most effective for triggering memory reactivation in sleep, as indicated by an amplified spindle response.

Synthetic exendin-4 disrupts responding to reward predictive incentive cues in male rats.

Synthetic exendin-4 (EX4, exenatide), is a GLP-1 receptor agonist used clinically to treat glycemia in Type-2 diabetes mellitus. EX4 also promotes weight loss and alters food reward-seeking behaviors in part due to activation of GLP-1 receptors in the mesolimbic dopamine system. Evidence suggests that GLP-1 receptor activity can directly attenuate cue-induced reward seeking. Here, we tested the effects of EX4 (0.6, 1.2, and 2.4 μg/kg, i.p.) on incentive cue (IC) responding, using a task where rats emit a nosepoke response during an intermittent reward-predictive IC to obtain a sucrose reward. EX4 dose-dependently attenuated responding to ICs and increased the latencies to respond to the IC and enter the sucrose reward cup. Moreover, EX4 dose-dependently decreased the total number of active port nosepokes for every cue presented. There was no effect of EX4 on the number of reward cup entries per reward earned, a related reward-seeking metric with similar locomotor demand. There was a dose-dependent interaction between the EX4 dose and session time on the responding to ICs and nosepoke response latency. The interaction indicated that effects of EX4 at the beginning and end of the session differed by the dose of EX4, suggesting dose-dependent pharmacokinetic effects. EX4 had no effect on free sucrose consumption behavior (i.e., total volume consumed, bout size, number of bouts) within the range of total sucrose volumes obtainable during the IC task (~3.5 ml). However, when rats were given unrestricted access for 1 h, where rats obtained much larger total volumes of sucrose (~30 ml), we observed some dose-dependent EX4 effects on drinking behavior, including decreases in total volume consumed. Together, these findings suggest that activation of the GLP-1 receptor modulates the incentive properties of cues attributed with motivational significance.

C. elegans males optimize mate-preference decisions via sex-specific responses to multimodal sensory cues

For sexually reproducing animals, selecting optimal mates is important for maximizing reproductive fitness. In the nematode C.elegans, populations reproduce largely by hermaphrodite self-fertilization, but the cross-fertilization of hermaphrodites by males also occurs. Males' ability to recognize hermaphrodites involves several sensory cues, but an integrated view of the ways males use these cues in their native context to assess characteristics of potential mates has been elusive. Here, we examine the mate-preference behavior of C.elegans males evoked by natively produced cues. We find that males use a combination of volatile sex pheromones (VSPs), ascaroside sex pheromones, surface-associated cues, and other signals to assess multiple features of potential mates. Specific aspects of mate preference are communicated by distinct signals: developmental stage and sex are signaled by ascaroside pheromones and surface cues, whereas the presence of a self-sperm-depleted hermaphrodite is likely signaled by VSPs. Furthermore, males prefer to interact with virgin over mated, and well-fed over food-deprived, hermaphrodites; these preferences are likely adaptive and are also mediated by ascarosides and other cues. Sex-typical mate-preference behavior depends on the sexual state of the nervous system, such that pan-neuronal genetic masculinization in hermaphrodites generates male-typical social behavior. We also identify an unexpected role for the sex-shared ASH sensory neurons in male attraction to ascaroside sex pheromones. Our findings lead to an integrated view in which the distinct physical properties of various mate-preference cues guide a flexible, stepwise behavioral program by which males assess multiple features of potential mates to optimize mate preference.

Effect of menstrual cycle on rewarding properties of alcohol cues in women.

Compared with men, women are disproportionately affected by alcohol, including greater risks of behavioral impairment and relapse from abstinence-based treatments. One potential mechanism underlying this disparity is ovarian hormone fluctuations across menstrual cycle phases, particularly estradiol (E2). Preclinical and clinical studies have shown that E2 levels positively correlate with alcohol consumption, suggesting E2 modulates drinking. Rewarding properties of alcohol are thought to mediate this relationship. The present study tested the degree to which women report increased rewarding effects from alcohol and heightened attention to alcohol-related cues when E2 was elevated during the late follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. Fifty women aged 21-29 participated in a within-subjects placebo-controlled study examining how menstrual cycle phase alters the rewarding properties of alcohol and alcohol-associated cues when sober and intoxicated, as measured by their attentional bias toward alcohol-associated cues and subjective reports. Measures were obtained following 0.60 g/kg alcohol and placebo during the early follicular phase when E2 was low and the late follicular phase (i.e., ovulation) when E2 was elevated. Attentional bias to alcohol-associated cues was greater during the late follicular phase in both sober and intoxicated states. Women reported rewarding effects from alcohol, but no effects of phase were observed. The findings suggest that the rewarding properties of alcohol-associated cues might be enhanced during the late follicular phase of the menstrual cycle when E2 is elevated, possibly increasing the risk for excessive drinking in women during this phase. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Cocaine-induced plasticity, motivation, and cue responsivity do not differ in obesity-prone vs obesity-resistant rats; implications for food addiction

RationaleCompared to obesity-resistant rats, obesity-prone rats consume more food, work harder to obtain food, show greater motivational responses to food-cues, and show greater striatal plasticity in response to eating sugary/fatty foods. Therefore, it is possible that obesity-prone rats may also be more sensitive to the motivational properties of cocaine and cocaine-paired cues, and to plasticity induced by cocaine.ObjectiveTo examine baseline differences in motivation for cocaine and effects of intermittent access (IntA) cocaine self-administration on cocaine motivation, neurobehavioral responsivity to cocaine-paired cues, and locomotor sensitization in male obesity-prone vs obesity-resistant rats.MethodsIntravenous cocaine self-administration was used to examine drug-taking and drug-seeking in males. Motivation for cocaine was measured using a within session threshold procedure. Cue-induced c-Fos expression in mesocorticolimbic regions was measured.ResultsDrug-taking and drug-seeking, cue-induced c-Fos, locomotor sensitization, and preferred level of cocaine consumption (Q0) were similar between obesity-prone and obesity-resistant groups. Maximal responding during demand testing (Rmax) was lower in obesity-prone rats. IntA experience enhanced motivation for cocaine (Pmax) in obesity-prone rats.ConclusionsThe results do not support robust inherent differences in motivation for cocaine, cue-induced cocaine seeking, or neurobehavioral plasticity induced by IntA in obesity-prone vs obesity-resistant rats. This contrasts with previously established differences seen for food and food cues in these populations and shows that inherent enhancements in motivation for food and food-paired cues do not necessarily transfer to drugs and drug-paired cues.

Collective decision strategies in the presence of spatio-temporal correlations

Background: Models of collective decision-making typically assume that individuals sample information independently and decide instantaneously. In most natural and sociological settings, however, decisions occur over some timescale in which group members gather information—often from multiple sources. Information sources may persist for varying lengths of time or be viewed concurrently and identically by multiple group members. These tendencies introduce spatio-temporal correlations in gathered information with poorly understood consequences. Research Design: Here, we develop a collective decision-making model in which individuals’ access and switch between two conflicting cues that differ in their spatio-temporal properties. Results: Our model reveals that spatially and temporally correlated cues can profoundly affect collective decisions. Specifically, we observe that spatially correlated cues are dominant when individuals rarely switch between sources of information. Temporally correlated cues, on the other hand, have the strongest impact when individuals frequently switch between information sources. We also discuss how much the usage of independent information must be increased to counter the impact of correlation. Conclusions: The present model represents a first step toward more accurately capturing the complex mechanisms underlying collective decision-making in natural systems and reveals multiple ways in which the properties of environmental cues can impact collective behavior.

Calcium activity is a degraded estimate of spikes

Recording action potentials extracellularly during behavior has led to fundamental discoveries regarding neural function-hippocampal neurons respond to locations in space,1 motor cortex neurons encode movement direction,2 and dopamine neurons signal reward prediction errors3-observations undergirding current theories of cognition,4 movement,5 and learning.6 Recently it has become possible to measure calcium flux, an internal cellular signal related to spiking. The ability to image calcium flux in anatomically7,8 or genetically9 identified neurons can extend our knowledge of neural circuit function by allowing activity to be monitored in specific cell types or projections, or in the same neurons across many days. However, while initial studies were grounded in prior unit recording work, it has become fashionable to assume that calcium is identical to spiking, even though the spike-to-fluorescence transformation is nonlinear, noisy, and unpredictable under real-world conditions.10 It remains an open question whether calcium provides a high-fidelity representation of single-unit activity in awake, behaving subjects. Here, we have addressed this question by recording both signals in the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) of rats during olfactory discrimination learning. Activity in the OFC during olfactory learning has been well-studied in humans,11,12,13,14 nonhuman primates,15,16 and rats,17,18,19,20,21 where it has been shown to signal information about both the sensory properties of odor cues and the rewards they predict. Our single-unit results replicated prior findings, whereas the calcium signal provided only a degraded estimate of the information available in the single-unit spiking, reflecting primarily reward value.

LINKING MULTIPLE PERSPECTIVES WITH OBJECT-BASED VISUAL CUES FOR SPATIAL VIDEO ANALYSIS

Abstract. The visual analysis of videos in context with mapped information requires support in the challenges of linking different spatial perspectives (e.g., street level and survey perspective), bridging different levels of detail, and relating objects in different visual representation. Uncertainty in the spatial relation between camera views and map complicates these tasks. We implemented visualizations for the visual analysis of street level videos (i.e., video key frames) embedded in their spatial context. As part of this, we developed a design rationale for visual cues that help link the video key frames and a map in cases where the spatial relation between camera view and map is of uncertain accuracy. We implemented three cue types (simplified viewshed, object-based dot cues, street centre line cues) for an image data set with heterogeneous camera localization accuracy and assessed the resulting cue properties. Based on this, we argue in favour of cue designs that minimize uncertain information required for their display at the expense of cues’ spatial explicitness in cases of potentially low camera localization accuracy. When localization accuracy is expected to be at least moderate, particularly, dot cues that refer to unambiguous points of reference within easily recognizable objects of ample size present a promising option to support view co-registration.

Music Evokes Fewer but More Positive Autobiographical Memories Than Emotionally Matched Sound and Word Cues

Anecdotal propositions that music is “special” as a memory cue have been partially supported by research demonstrating that music can evoke qualitatively different autobiographical memories than various other cues. However, it is unknown whether such differences in memory qualities may be attributed to inherent differences in properties of the retrieval cues. Across four online experiments, we tested whether unfamiliar musical retrieval cues exhibit differential effects on autobiographical memories when compared against matched emotional cues (environmental sounds and words). The music consistently elicited fewer memories in comparison to sound and word cues. Music also evoked relatively positive memories regardless of its valence, with negative-sounding music reliably bringing back more positive memories than negative sounds/words. Words elicited memories rated as more unique than music-cued memories. These results have implications for the use of music as a memory cue in both research and practical contexts, from music therapy to advertising.

Negative Urgency Exacerbates Relapse to Cocaine Seeking After Abstinence

BackgroundThe mechanisms through which drug-cue–induced negative affective states are involved in relapse have not been defined. We tested the hypothesis that in individuals having developed a dorsolateral striatum (DLS)–dependent cue-controlled cocaine-seeking habit, the loss of the opportunity to enact the drug-seeking response during abstinence results in an urge to act that exacerbates relapse severity mediated by negative urgency. MethodsEighty-seven male Sprague Dawley rats were trained to seek cocaine under the influence of the conditioned reinforcing properties of drug-paired cues or not. We investigated whether the tendency to relapse depended on the aversive state of withdrawal or instead on the loss of opportunity to perform the ingrained drug-seeking response after periods of abstinence. The striatal locus of control over cocaine seeking at baseline and relapse was investigated using in situ hybridization of the cellular activity marker C-fos and assessment of the sensitivity of instrumental drug seeking to dopamine receptor blockade in the dorsomedial striatum–dependent goal-directed and DLS-dependent habit systems. ResultsThe development of a DLS-dependent cue-controlled cocaine-seeking habit prior to abstinence resulted in a marked increase in drug seeking at relapse, which was not motivated by a cocaine withdrawal state and was no longer dependent on the DLS habit system. Instead, it reflected the emergence of negative urgency caused by the prevention of the performance of the habit during abstinence and underpinned by transient engagement of the goal-directed system. ConclusionsThese results show that ingrained cue-controlled drug-seeking habits increase the pressure to relapse.

Addicted to green: priming effect of menthol cigarette packaging on brain response to smoking cues

IntroductionMentholated tobacco cigarettes are believed to be more addictive than non-menthol ones. Packaging of most menthol cigarette brands includes distinctive green hues, which may act as conditioned stimuli (ie, cues)...

A Multi-Domain Evaluation of Scaling in a General Episodic Memory

Episodic memory endows agents with numerous general cognitive capabilities, such as action modeling and virtual sensing. However, for long-lived agents, there are numerous unexplored computational challenges in supporting useful episodic-memory functions while maintaining real-time reactivity. In this paper, we review the implementation of episodic memory in Soar and present an expansive evaluation of that system. We demonstrate useful applications of episodic memory across a variety of domains, including games, mobile robotics, planning, and linguistics. In these domains, we characterize properties of environments, tasks, and episodic cues that affect performance, and evaluate the ability of Soar’s episodic memory to support hours to days of real-time operation.

Dissociable contributions of phasic dopamine activity to reward and prediction.

Sensory cues that precede reward acquire predictive (expected value) and incentive (drive reward-seeking action) properties. Mesolimbic dopamine neurons' responses to sensory cues correlate with both expected value and reward-seeking action. This has led to the proposal that phasic dopamine responses may be sufficient to inform value-based decisions, elicit actions, and/or induce motivational states; however, causal tests are incomplete. Here, we show that direct dopamine neuron stimulation, both calibrated to physiological and greater intensities, at the time of reward can be sufficient to induce and maintain reward seeking (reinforcing) although replacement of a cue with stimulation is insufficient to induce reward seeking or act as an informative cue. Stimulation of descending cortical inputs, one synapse upstream, are sufficient for reinforcement and cues to future reward. Thus, physiological activation of mesolimbic dopamine neurons can be sufficient for reinforcing properties of reward without being sufficient for the predictive and incentive properties of cues.

Exploring the Role of Cognition in the Annual Fall Migration of the Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus).

Simple SummaryEach year, millions of monarch butterflies in eastern North America undergo a spectacular fall migration to overwintering sites in central Mexico, where they remain until returning northward in the spring. In addition to the navigational challenges faced during the southward flight, migratory individuals are also challenged with the foraging task of locating high-quality nectar sources for overwinter survival in the face of unfamiliar floral landscapes that change in complex and unpredictable ways. In the research reported here, a proboscis extension paradigm is used to investigate learning and long-term memory abilities that might help fall migrants meet these unique foraging demands. Male and female migratory and captive-reared individuals were consecutively trained to perform color and odor cue discriminations and then tested for their ability to simultaneously retain reward information associated with each cue in memory without reinforcement over a period of 7 days. Results showed that male and female fall migrants can learn the reward properties of color and odor cues with over 75% accuracy after less than 40 s of exposure and can simultaneously retain visual and olfactory information predicting the availability of floral rewards in memory without reinforcement for at least 7 days. Captive-reared male butterflies also showed the ability to retain visual and olfactory information in long-term memory for 7 days; however, 80% of captive-reared females could not retain color cues in long-term memory for more than 24 h. These novel findings are consistent with the view that monarch butterflies have enhancements to long-term memory that enable them to minimize the amount of time and energy wasted searching for suitable nectar sources during their annual fall migration, thereby optimizing migratory performance and increasing the chance of overwinter survival. The possibility that female monarchs undergo a seasonal change in visual long-term memory warrants further empirical investigation.Each fall, monarch butterflies in eastern North America undergo an extraordinary long-distance migration to wintering areas in central Mexico, where they remain until returning northward in the spring. Migrants survive the overwintering period by metabolizing lipid reserves accumulated exclusively though floral nectar; however, there is little known about how individuals maximize foraging efficiency in the face of floral environments that constantly change in complex and unpredictable ways along their migratory route. Here, a proboscis extension paradigm is used to investigate the role of cognition during the foraging phase of monarch migration. Male and female migratory butterflies were consecutively trained to discriminate between two color and odor cues and then tested for their ability to simultaneously retain the information on the reward value of each cue in memory without reinforcement over a period of 7 days. To gain further insight into cognitive abilities of monarchs as a migratory species, a second set of captive-reared males and females were tested under harnessed conditions at the same time as wild-caught fall migrants. Results showed that male and female migrants can learn the reward properties of color and odor cues with over 75% accuracy after less than 40 s of exposure and can simultaneously retain visual and olfactory information predicting the availability of floral rewards in memory without reinforcement for at least 7 days. Captive-reared male butterflies also showed the ability to retain visual and olfactory information in long-term memory for 7 days; however, 80% of captive-reared females could not retain color cues in long-term memory for more than 24 h. These novel findings are consistent with the view that monarch butterflies, as a migratory species, have enhancements to long-term memory that enable them to minimize the amount of time and energy wasted searching for suitable nectar sources during their annual fall migration, thereby optimizing migratory performance and increasing the chance of overwinter survival. The possibility that female monarchs undergo a seasonal change in visual long-term memory warrants further empirical investigation.

Visual instrumental learning in blindsight monkeys

Blindsight is the residual visuo-motor ability without subjective awareness observed after lesions of the primary visual cortex (V1). Various visual functions are retained, however, instrumental visual associative learning remains to be investigated. Here we examined the secondary reinforcing properties of visual cues presented to the hemianopic field of macaque monkeys with unilateral V1 lesions. Our aim was to test the potential role of visual pathways bypassing V1 in reinforcing visual instrumental learning. When learning the location of a hidden area in an oculomotor search task, conditioned visual cues presented to the lesion-affected hemifield operated as an effective secondary reinforcer. We noted that not only the hidden area location, but also the vector of the saccade entering the target area was reinforced. Importantly, when the visual reinforcement signal was presented in the lesion-affected field, the monkeys continued searching, as opposed to stopping when the cue was presented in the intact field. This suggests the monkeys were less confident that the target location had been discovered when the reinforcement cue was presented in the affected field. These results indicate that the visual signals mediated by the residual visual pathways after V1 lesions can access fundamental reinforcement mechanisms but with impaired visual awareness.

The gate to metastasis: key players in cancer cell intravasation.

Metastasis is a leading cause of cancer‐related death and consists of a sequence of events including tumor expansion, intravasation of cancer cells into the circulation, survival in the bloodstream, extravasation at distant sites, and subsequent organ colonization. Particularly, intravasation is a process whereby cancer cells transverse the endothelium and leave the primary tumor site, pioneering the metastatic cascade. The identification of those mechanisms that trigger the entry of cancer cells into the bloodstream may reveal fundamentally novel ways to block metastasis at its start. Multiple factors have been implicated in cancer progression, yet, signals that unequivocally provoke the detachment of cancer cells from the primary tumor are still under investigation. Here, we discuss the role of intrinsic properties of cancer cells, tumor microenvironment, and mechanical cues in the intravasation process, outlining studies that suggest the involvement of various factors and highlighting current understanding and open questions in the field.

Time‐of‐Day Variation in Learning, Reward‐Associated Behaviors, and Rapid Dopamine Release

Research has shown that circadian rhythms in physiology and behavior play a role in a number of psychiatric disorders, like depression and substance use disorder (SUD). For example, time-of-day variation has been observed in craving for nicotine, heroin, and cocaine in abstinent individuals. However, we have yet to fully delineate how these rhythms mediate variations in motivated behavior, learning, and reward seeking. This is critical as aberrant motivation and learning are hallmarks in these disorders. Additionally, the mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system is implicated in the neurobiology of motivation and learning, and research has shown time-of-day variations in DA tone. Less work has focused on rapid DA signals that are critical for motivation and learning. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine time-of-day variations in incentive motivational properties of reward-associated cues and learning and the degree to which the magnitude of mesolimbic DA release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) corresponded to dynamic shifts in motivation and learning across time-of-day. Our central hypothesis is that there are critical times within the day that confer increased sensitivity to reward-associated cues, which are mediated by time-of-day variations in the magnitude of phasic DA signaling. Initially, we examined the magnitude of NAc DA signaling to stimulations that mimic both tonic and phasic firing of mesolimbic DA neurons in rats. We used ex vivo fast scan cyclic voltammetry (FSCV) at four different time points across the 12:12 light/dark cycle. Our data demonstrate robust time-of-day differences in DA release magnitude following stimulations that model both phasic (≥20 Hz) and tonic (5 Hz) firing. Given that the phasic/tonic ratio of DA release magnitude was greatest midway through the dark cycle and lowest midway through the light cycle, we examined whether behavioral paradigms sensitive to DA release magnitude would fluctuate consistently with these DA oscillations. We therefore utilized Pavlovian paradigms in rodents to measure incentive motivational aspects and conditioned approach towards a reward-associated cue, during midway through the light cycle and midway through the dark cycle. Furthermore, since DA release and motivated behavior is modulated by striatal cholinergic interneuron (CIN) activity via nicotinic receptors (nAChRs) located on DA axons, we examined whether both DA release and incentive motivation was altered following nicotine exposure. To unmask the circuitry underlying these variations, we utilized ex vivo optogentics. We found a robust increase in DA release magnitude without the contribution of CIN activity midway through the dark cycle. In contrast, DA release was significantly higher in DA release magnitude modulated by CIN activity midway through the light cycle. Lastly, we are currently using in vivo optogenetics to mediate the magnitude of DA release during Pavlovian paradigms at times throughout the light cycles. Collectively, our data suggest that rats midway through their dark cycle exhibit increased sensitivity to reward-associated cues, which may be mediated by rapid DA release that is modulated by oscillations in CIN activity throughout the day.

The Impact of Shape-Based Cue Discriminability on Attentional Performance.

With rapidly developing technology, visual cues became a powerful tool for deliberate guiding of attention and affecting human performance. Using cues to manipulate attention introduces a trade-off between increased performance in cued, and decreased in not cued, locations. For higher efficacy of visual cues designed to purposely direct user’s attention, it is important to know how manipulation of cue properties affects attention. In this verification study, we addressed how varying cue complexity impacts the allocation of spatial endogenous covert attention in space and time. To gradually vary cue complexity, the discriminability of the cue was systematically modulated using a shape-based design. Performance was compared in attended and unattended locations in an orientation-discrimination task. We evaluated additional temporal costs due to processing of a more complex cue by comparing performance at two different inter-stimulus intervals. From preliminary data, attention scaled with cue discriminability, even for supra-threshold cue discriminability. Furthermore, individual cue processing times partly impacted performance for the most complex, but not simpler cues. We conclude that, first, cue complexity expressed by discriminability modulates endogenous covert attention at supra-threshold cue discriminability levels, with increasing benefits and decreasing costs; second, it is important to consider the temporal processing costs of complex visual cues.